Susana Martinez

Susana Martinez (14 July 1959-) was Governor of New Mexico from 1 January 2011, succeeding Bill Richardson. She was the first Hispanic female to become the governor of a US state, and she was a member of the US Republican Party.

Biography
Susana Martinez was born in El Paso, Texas on 14 July 1959 to a middle-class family of Mexican descent, the son of a Korean War veteran. She earned her bachelor's degree in criminal justice from the University of Texas at El Paso, working for her father's security guard company while she was studying. In 1986, she gained her juris doctor from the University of Oklahoma School of Law, and she worked as a district attorney in the neighboring state of New Mexico. In 1995, she switched her allegiance from the US Democratic Party to the US Republican Party, and she secured the Republican nomination for Governor of New Mexico in 2010, winning the election. She rescinded sanctuary status for illegal immigrants who had committed crimes in America, and her term as governor was marred by a rapid decrease in jobs, being last in job growth and losing 4,400 jobs from April 2013 to April 2014. However, she won re-election in 2014 with 57% of the vote, and she opposed abortion, the legalization of marijuana, and the admittance of Syrian refugees into America.